Salaries of jobs in Vietnam are among the lowest in the whole Asia-Pacific region. Nevertheless, you can live well on an average expat salary, as locals tend to earn far less, and benefit from some extras.

The wages are generally low in Vietnam, but there are strong differences between regions and industries. Wage and salary are very dissimilar across occupations in Vietnam and contrast starkly between urban and rural areas. The average wage per person in Vietnam is around 3.2 million VND ($150) a month and differentiated by many factors.

Like many places in the world, salary level is dissimilar across types of career in Vietnam. Undeniably, the high payment is seen in top professions of Mineral and Metallurgy with about 9.2 million dong per month. This payment is followed by salary in fields of Banking and Pharmacy with 7.6 million dong and 7 million dong per month respectively. Meanwhile, other careers in fields of Textile or Food Industry receive lower wages ranging around 2.5 million dong per month.

There are also significant gap in salary between different positions in one specific jobs in Vietnam. For example, the wage for office staff such as secretaries is about 2 – 3 million dong per month, and expat salary in Vietnam for a CEO ranges from 17 million dong to 20 million dong per month. The figure sees a quite high gap between low-ranking and high-ranking positions.

Expat salary in Vietnam for expats which is calculated under the law of Vietnam is relatively high in comparison to that of Vietnamese people. The salary is different from region by region. Salary in urban areas is higher than that in rural areas.

On the contrary, jobs in Vietnam for foreigners have extremely high income in comparison to that of Vietnamese people. Specifically, salary of a foreign general director of luxury hotels is from 10000-15000 USD per month (equal to 210 – 320 million dong per month) depending on scale of the company, and this salary is excluded taxable income. In addition, foreigners are supported with luxury villas, private cars, chauffeur, travel airfare, and so on. The heads of departments in the company are paid not less than US$5000 per month (more than 100 million dong per month). However, the Vietnam average income is also influenced by types of company. There is a difference between private and state-owned companies, joint-venture companies, and foreign-owned ones. Almost office-staff and employee of state-owned enterprises have low payment which is equivalent to about one third, one fifth, even one tenth of private officers’ wage in the same positions, especially in fields of education and medical care. Income of officers in some fields of banking, petroleum or energy might be higher, but still less than that in private companies.

Vietnam’s National Wage Council has voted for a 12.4 percent minimum wage increase in 2016. According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA)’s Vice Minister, increases will also take place in 2017.

In 2015, the minimum wage of jobs in Vietnam was increased by 13-15% to VND 2.15 million-VND 3.1 million (US$96-138).

MOLISA’s “Minimum Wage Adjustment Road Map” to 2020 suggests that the minimum wage in 2020 will be around VND 4.8 million (US$213) in Region One and VND 3.4 million (US$151) in Region Four.